Highway 118 Group to Discuss Safety

Safety along the city’s busiest street will be the topic of discussion when Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels and representatives from the state Department of Transportation and California Highway Patrol convene the Highway 118 Safety Task Force meeting on Wednesday.

The public meeting will take place from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in the Apricot Room at Moorpark Community Center as part of the Highway Patrol’s ongoing effort to reduce the number of accidents along the 20-mile stretch of California 118 between Moorpark and Ventura.

“We’ll be providing an update on our enforcement and on the number of hours as far as overtime and how we’re progressing,” said CHP Capt. Rich Owen.

Mikels, who has co-chaired the committee since its inception last fall, said the meeting will address certain parts of California 118 that are difficult to patrol.

“One of the big issues is that there are stretches of the 118 where there are no safe places to pull over a motorist or a truck,” she said. “So they’re going to be talking about, ‘Can we widen the shoulders? Can we add to the shoulder so if an officer sees an infraction he can pull someone over and deal with it?’ ”

Mikels said the task force is trying to reduce the number of accidents along the 118 this year through community awareness and measures such as the daytime headlights program.